Monday, January 10, 2005

The Ukrainians did it

Pora was important for the success of the Orange Revolution protests but could not have been effective on its own. There were also other enterprises directing people to vote and then urging them to claim their votes. One of them is civilian enterprise Znayu which gave training to electors in all provinces and towns to vote, to be selective about candidates and to claim their votes. For this purpose Znayu prepared announcements entertaining and didactic radio and television programs.

Peter Koshukov, a founder and coordinator of Znayu said that they had distributed around 7 million leaflets and announcements and worked with thousands of volunteers for the eections. Znayu has the support of nearly 100 civilian organizations. Among these organizations there are also civilian foundations such as Open Community and branches of George Soros Foundation, Freedom House, the American Republican Party's IRI and Democrat Party affiliated NDI, and enterprises such as US-Ukraine Foundation. These foundations financed the projects developed by Znayu. Like Pora, organizations like Znayu have played their part in former civilian revolutions.

Of course the retort is that they are not going far enough back of all this. If they did, they would find American coordination, American organization and American money--along with a CIA case officer under every bed and behind every tree.